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Global Witness bursts the Brussels Bubble

Our EU office
has only been running for a year, but it’s already been full steam in our quest
for EU policies and laws that work for people and planet. Whether tackling
corruption or deforestation, our hard work is already paying off. And we’re
continuing with renewed vigour in 2019, with real hope that people living in
remote areas across the world can have better lives, because of better EU policies.
Here are just some of the highlights of Global
Witness in action in Brussels over 2018.

Ensuring finance doesn’t harm
people and planet

Revelations
that European money – and EU-based investors – play a key role in funding
projects linked to human rights abuses and environmental destruction, are far
too commonplace.

We spotted a
unique and important opportunity to try and tackle these abuses, when the European
Commission’s Action Plan on Sustainable Finance was published in March,
followed by the launch of a package of legislative
proposals in May.

Using these,
we have campaigned hard over the last year for the EU to bring in new requirements
for institutional investors to carry out due diligence, to ensure their money
isn’t bankrolling companies or projects which are causing harm.

To show the human and environmental reality of a
lack of checks and balances in investor behaviour, we published four case
studies in our briefing Indecent
Exposure that highlighted the role EU-based investors and
their subsidiaries play in bankrolling companies causing social and
environmental harm.

And less than two months later, the European
Parliament voted for a strong, mandatory due diligence regime for investors in
a historic
vote. We are continuing this campaign in 2019, working to
ensure the final law includes a robust mandatory investor due diligence regime.

Environmental Defenders

The
release of the Global Witness report on Environmental
Defenders
in July was met with a flurry of media interest. The shocking findings of death
and violence against people protecting their lands and our environment were
widely reported in the European media.

To
mark our one-year anniversary in Brussels and to show the strong connection
between unsustainable finance and the brutal killings of defenders, we invited key
influencers to an evening
in the European Parliament, hosted by Linda McAvan MEP Chair
of the Parliament’s Development Committee.

This event
was a milestone in the Brussels journey to a more global sustainable finance
system, with the voices of defenders and high level speakers making it clear
that finance must move beyond business as usual where profit trumps people and
planet.

Our
message was heard by the European Commission which last week finally published its
report on Golden Visas confirming that they “are deliberately
marketed and often explicitly advertised as a means of acquiring EU
citizenship” and that “they threaten the EU’s collective security and
integrity”.

In
parallel, the Bulgarian government announced it would suspend its scheme. But the
Commission stopped short of taking action to force member states to tackle the
clear corruption risks these schemes pose to the EU as a whole. It’s now time for Member States
to take responsibility for their golden visa schemes and, following Bulgaria’s
lead, suspend them until it is clear they are no longer threatening the
security of the EU.”

Deforestation

Our
work in 2018 also created some real movement towards concrete action from the
EU to curb deforestation. Members of the European Parliament from three different
Committees supported our recommendations on conflict timber and corruption to strengthen
EU action to tackle deforestation, and stop donor and climate funds being used for
industrial logging, agribusiness, mining or infrastructure developments in
intact forests. Our opinion piece in EU Observer explains why the EU
needs to take concrete action to tackle deforestation.

What next in 2019?

The battle to
achieve a sustainable financial system isn’t won yet – so we will be working
hard to ensure the EU brings in mandatory due diligence for investors of their
environmental, social and governance risks.

We will
continue to campaign for the EU to close loopholes to the corrupt be it through
golden visa schemes or clamping down on money-laundering and dirty money coming
into the EU.

And we will
fight to ensure the EU brings in concrete action to tackle deforestation – a
major driver of climate change – turning rhetoric into action.

Ensuring that Brussels
policy making delivers for people and planet is my passion, and my utmost
priority.